UH Student Media

A True Monster of Rock

First, I would like to thank my father for not restricting the music I chose to listen to as a teenager. I came of age in the 90’s during a highly confusing time for music and far too often I wasn’t sure what I actually liked and what was just being shoved in my face by the industry. On my 13th birthday my father handed me a portable CD player (this was long before the age of the mp3) and a copy of Marilyn Manson’s Mechanical Animals. Thus began my addiction to buying CDs and discovering music. I spent hours in music shops on the weekends picking up albums then setting them back on the shelf. During that time there was no way of knowing whether or not an album would be good so I was doubtful of my choices and took many risks that didn’t always pay off.

That’s when, during one trip, I saw it buried within the M’s like a long lost treasure. Powertrip, the cover read and standing before a wall of flames burning an american flag was Monster Magnet. Black leather, long hair, handlebar mustache, aviator shades and the devil’s horns. As a teenager I remember thinking how fucking cool these guys were and presently nothing has changed. Monster Magnet are still making music and touring and in my opinion are one of the best bands in the world. Part of the attraction is that they are not a commercial band. I don’t expect they ever will be and this gives more young people a chance to discover them the way I did.

Nearly three years have passed since their last album, Mastermind, was released but it feels more like a decade. It has been worth the wait. Inspired by the forefathers of rock, Monster Magnet paved the way for the psychedelic metal genre. No one sounded like them then and no one sounds like them now. In Last Patrol they are at their best, harnessing the raw tone of their early work that some say has been lacking in their more recent albums.

“Nothing’s important, yet everything is. If there ain’t no photo, I just don’t exist.” Dave Wyndorf tells us in his familiar deep tone when the album kicks off.

Once “I Live Behind the Clouds” begins, you know you’re listening to Monster Magnet. The riffs travel in a spacey echo to another dimension where Wyndorf waits to greet you with a fistful of psychedelics and a glass full of whiskey. Take them both and enjoy this latest work that’s full of attitude and power. Last Patrol is so good you’ll want to punch the unfortunate soul who just happens to walk by you when it is over.

Last Patrol drops on Tuesday, October 15th and I suggest you pick it up. Click HERE if you want to give it a listen before you buy. Monster Magnet will be performing in Houston at Fitzgerald’s on December 13th, 2013. This is especially important because they have not toured the US in many, many years. So by a ticket, rock hard and I’ll see you there!